Daily Archives: August 9, 2007

Sydney Anglicans has a story online about the Sydney bishops’ letter to ++Rowan, which Kendall posted below. Here’s an excerpt.

The Sydney bishops’ letter also reveals that the delay is aimed at communicating to Archbishop Williams their hesitations, “in joining with those who have consecrated Bishop Gene Robinson, and with others who have allowed the blessing of same-sex unions”.

“Given the significance of these events,” the Sydney bishops said, “we feel we cannot give an answer to your kind invitation until later in the year.”

Kirker claims ”˜racist’

Meanwhile, Dr Jensen’s media officer Margaret Rodgers has dismissed as ”˜shameful’ and ”˜racist’ claims by an English gay leader that the Primate of Nigeria will appoint a flying bishop for UK conservatives as part of plan directed by the Archbishop of Sydney.

The Rev Richard Kirker from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement said, “It has been clear for some time that under the guidance of Peter Jensen (Archbishop of Sydney)” that the Nigerian Church “has been distancing itself from the Church of England and particularly of the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury”.

Margaret Rodgers said Kirker’s comments were a slight against Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola whose leadership was ”˜greatly admired in the Diocese of Sydney’.

“This statement is patently untrue and it has no basis in fact,” she said. “It is deeply shameful for it has at its base an inherent racism that fails to acknowledge the Biblical commitment and insights of this particular African Primate. No one guides and advises Archbishop Akinola what to do except the Lord of the Bible.

“Kirker’s statement appears to be akin to the ”˜chicken dinner’ slurs that were used by some liberal churchmen in their attempt to offset the biblical understandings of African bishops at the time of the 1998 Lambeth Conference,” she said.

The Dalai Lama, Pope Benedict XVI and the spiritual leader of the world’s Eastern Orthodox Christians were among 15 “Green Religious Leaders” cited by a Seattle-based environmental group.

Grist, an environmental news and commentary Web site that also highlighted “green” actors, musicians and chefs, among others, said the 15 names on the list and five runners-up are dedicated to “spreading the eco-gospel.”

At the last of his 417 crusades, the one held in New York City in June 2005, evangelist Billy Graham made an unscripted proposal.

Both Bill and Hillary Clinton were sitting with him on stage in Flushing Meadows when Graham greeted them as his “wonderful friends of many years.” “I told him,” Graham said of President Clinton, “when he left the presidency, he should become an evangelist, because he had all the gifts.” Graham paused, and added with a smile, “And he could [let] his wife run the country.”

Moshe Milstein, a religious Jew who is incarcerated at the federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., wants his Maimonides back. Officials at the Otisville prison recently removed hundreds of books from the chapel library there””including, Milstein charges in court documents, works by the great 12th-century rabbi and physician Maimonides as well as the Zohar, the ancient text upon which the mystical practice of Kabbalah is based. The books were removed, Bureau of Prisons officials explain, to comply with new rules set earlier this year. To reduce the risk that prisoners will find hateful or radicalizing (read: terrorist) materials in chapel libraries, the BOP has developed lists of 150 approved books per religion for 20 religions, including Bahai, Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses. In all of the bureau’s 114 prisons, chaplains are in the midst of dramatic reorganizations, removing from shelves any book not on one of the BOP’s lists. “It was a huge undertaking,” says Traci Billingsley, a BOP spokeswoman.

An ecclesiastical court on Wednesday convicted the Rev. Donald Armstrong of stealing nearly $400,000 from his Colorado Springs parish, though it cannot legally punish the breakaway pastor.

The court of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado will decide in about a month, however, whether to recommend that Bishop Robert O’Neill defrock Armstrong, a largely symbolic action that would end all ties between the church and him.

Armstrong left the diocese with a majority of the Grace Church & St. Stephen’s vestry board in March and now oversees the congregation of the Grace CANA Church that is affiliated with the more conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America. His spokesman, Alan Crippen, said the Episcopal Diocese does not have authority over Armstrong.

“Our relationship with the diocese has been one of adversity over the last couple of months, so this decision is no surprise,” Crippen said Wednesday.

BabyBlue has a new letter from the diocese of Virginia posted on her blog. (It is not yet on the diocese’s website.)

To the Clergy and Lay Leaders of The Diocese of Virginia
August 8, 2007

Dear Friends:

Many of you have written, called and sent e-mails of support in recent months. I am grateful for all that you do in support of the mission of the Church to be the hands and feet of Christ at work in the world. Our aim is to help preserve the integrity of the Church so that you can continue to do that as Episcopalians in The Diocese of Virginia and to make sure that future generations will be able to say “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.”

Clearly The Episcopal Church faces challenges as our church is beset by groups and individuals determined to hijack the legacy of our ancestors and make off with the inheritance we are honor bound to protect, preserve and pass on to future generations. We face opposition from groups that are not only leaving The Episcopal Church but are now also steering a new course away from the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is very telling that Dr. Ephraim Radner, one of the founders of the Anglican Communion Network, one of the realignment groups, has resigned and distanced himself from the mission of that group.

Closer to home, this is an important week in The Diocese of Virginia’s defense of its heritage and stewardship of its future. On Friday, August 10, The Diocese of Virginia and The Episcopal Church will appear in Fairfax Circuit Court to defend our claim to Episcopal Church property against non-Episcopal groups that are trying to appropriate our churches for their own uses. This Friday, those groups will press technical and procedural claims that the Diocese and the Church have failed to state a case. In other words, they will try to have our case dismissed. Naturally, we oppose their actions. Later, in November, the court will hear arguments on the lawsuits, styled as petitions, filed by the Nigerian congregations that started this dispute. The Diocese and The Episcopal Church are named as defendants in that action.

This elf can’t resist pointing out, that as one of BabyBlue’s commenters notes, the Diocese of VA leadership seems to be following the script of the “Revisionist Dictionary” by one of our favorite T19 commenters, “Irenaeus,” which Stand Firm has been posting in sections this week. Here are Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Irenaeus’ definition of “hijack”:

HIJACK: What the Orthodox want to do to the Episcopal Church. What the Orthodox assert that Progressives have done to the Episcopal Church.